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Hairball

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TheBlockbuster

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Anitapal82
When you are present at the shows , the bum notes if any , are such a fleeting moment in the whole huge live experience that they go virtually unnoticed ! When Keith flubbed the start me up intro recently , I was there and it coincided with the start of the show with explosions and excitement, and then ,bang its Mick jagger and look there's Ronnie , and the sound is huge and the show is on ! The mistakes go unnoticed

I suppose that depends on what you focus your attention on. Some focus on the music itself, and others can get swept away with the overall excitement, while for some it's a combo of both.
Speaking for myself, I tend to pay close attention to the music - specifically the guitars, and even more specifically Keith - and that includes the good, the bad, and the ugly, none of which goes unnoticed.

Yes I think it depends on what you're focusing on. When I saw them in Stockholm last year I was very distracted when Keith played an E-chord instead of a B-chord after his solo on SFTD, it kind of ruined the song for me. But overall it's true that mistakes are less distracting when seeing them live.

Such occurences will be at odds with the song originals.

But I wonder, may they in certain cases be heard as "spontaneous" variations of the song, that one may enjoy as such? Some good or attractive, others not quite as good, but acceptable, others again outright bad? Or is this always a question of correct and incorrect rendition of song originals and never anything more?

From my perspective and in layman's terms:

It's not a matter of replicating the original, but playing something that doesn't make you think the world has turned upside down and is crashing in on your head.
For example, Keith has played some excellent solos on Sympathy in the past that are nothing like the original version, just as he has done with nearly every song they've ever played live.
If it's a spontaneous improv that's in the right key, that can usually be a good thing - not always though as there's many variables including correct tempo w/the rest of the band for example.
On the other hand, if it's a spontaneous improv that's totally in the wrong key, that can usually be a not so good thing (as this isn't avant garde jazz), but in most cases can be "saved" if it's eventually corrected.
But then there's also the missed notes, the botched chords, etc., that can dampen the listening experience, but again that's always been part of a Stones show - sometimes more and sometimes less.